Issue 55,

Parodies Lost

£12.00
/ $16.88 / 66.60 TL
($/TL approx)

In new Cornucopia, blithe Ottoman caricatures, a photographer’s hymn to Anatolia, the glory of Lycia’s bulbs, Erzurum the enigmatic, mastic, the Turkish impressionist Feyhaman Duran, the Benaki’s new palm court, gripping biographies of Mark Sykes and Steven Runciman,and the delightful memoirs of two freewheeling scholar-adventurers. Plus the cherished chickpea and its many gifts.

Highlights

It was for centuries the preserve of sultans, extolled by the ancients, sought after in the harem, a staple of palace kitchen and pharmacy. More precious than gold, mastic brought fortune and fame to the island of Chios, today the world’s sole source of this ‘Arabic gum’. Now, thanks to a pioneering initiative, the Turkish shores across the water will be green with mastic groves. Text and photographs by Berrin Torolsan

With its floral spectacle, sparkling light and limitless blue skies, southwest Turkey in autumn is ‘surely God’s own country’. Last year the botanist Andrew Byfield took a nostalgic bulb-hunting trip, retracing his steps in the hills of Caria and Lycia after an absence of twenty-one years. Text and photographs by Andrew Byfield

The French photographer Paul Veysseyre has devoted decades to documenting Turkey. Taken from the second volume of his Turkish trilogy, these striking images from the 1970s and 1980s – and his companions’ vivid memories – are a hymn to Anatolia, the wild beauty of the land, the dignity of its people, and the simple genius of their dwellings. Contributions by Maggie Quigley Pınar

An ambitious new work of classical music – based on Howard Blake’s enchanting score for ‘The Snowman’ – has just received its world premiere. This concert is just one of many achievements by Talent Unlimited, a Turkish charity that gives budding young virtuosi a helping hand. Tony Barrell tells the story. Photographs: Monica Fritz

The palm trees of Athens have been under siege from city planners and a deadly parasite, but the inventive artist Navine G Khan-Dossos has created a space in an abandoned museum attic where her stylised palms can flourish. By Thomas Roueché. Photographs by Nikos Kokkas and Yiannis Hadjislanis

Forced to leave Paris in the bleak
days of war, Feyhaman Duran, Turkey’s first recognised portraitist, chose
to emphasise beauty and light.
The Sakıp Sabanci Museum pays tribute with a glowing retrospective

And the award for most versatile, most nourishing and best-loved ingredient goes to… the humble chickpea. Berrin Torolsan explores its history and its limitless talent to entertain us in a multitude of different roles

Yusuf Franko Kusa used brush and pen and position to lampoon and pull the strings of Ottoman high society. Unseen for 60 years, his caricatures are now the subject of a fascinating exhibition in Istanbul, writes K Mehmet Kentel

At one time all roads led to Erzurum, a key stop on a great caravan route and a strategic bastion against invasion. Today it is a remote city on Turkey’s Asian frontier with an important history crying out to be discovered. In Part 2 of Cornucopia’s Beauty and the East series, the photographer Brian McKee continues his tour of eastern Anatolia in Erzurum as Scott Redford leads us from Turkic citadel to Mongol minarets.